Serenity in the Garden

Sometimes I find something that makes me so happy - I just read this post which was written several years ago by Kurt Fromherz in his Natureworks blog -  https://naturework.com/jan-johnsen-of-serenity-in-the-garden/ I never know how or if what I write reaches people..and now I know...Thank you so much Kurt Fromherz. Here is what he shared - I am so honored: This winter I made the trek up to snowbound Boston to see a woman speak that I have been following for many years. Jan Johnsen is a garden designer and writer. Her Serenity in the Garden blog caught my eye a long time ago and I fell in love with her posts. When I heard that she had published a new book, Heaven is a Garden, and would be speaking at New England Grows trade show the first week of February, I signed up. She was AMAZING! Her book is all about designing serene outdoor spaces for inspiration and reflection. I read it cover to cover the minute I returned home. I have to admit at times I was moved to tears...

garden by Jan Johnsen The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for him there. ~ George Bernard Shaw Being in a garden elevates us and inspires many of us... That is the why I write this blog.  I want to share my lifelong landscape work and experience with others so that you, too, will ‘touch the earth’. And I want to promote a reverent way of looking at the green world which sees the piece of ground outside our door as an ‘everyday conduit’ to the energy of life that flows within plants, water, trees, sunlight, rocks, birds and assorted creatures. a place, as George Bernard Shaw declared, where we can touch the divine. Looking at the natural world in this way is nothing new. The idea of sanctified outdoor space was the genesis for the sacred groves of the Egyptians, Indians and Greeks.  It birthed the medieval labyrinths and Native Americans’ 'medicine wheels'.  And of course, ancient Chinese geomancy, ‘Fen...

Boscobel Heaven is home.  Utopia is here . Nirvana is now.  - Edward Abbey

    From the garden book, Heaven is a Garden We all love to sit in a protected corner looking out to a view. This is why people seek out the proverbial “table in the corner” in a restaurant. It provides the sanctuary that I call, “the lure of a sheltered corner.” Plan for a sheltered patio corner This is also true outdoors, in your garden. I write about this in my garden design book, 'Heaven is a Garden'. If you create a rectangular patio and provide an outdoor seating area in a corner backed by bushes, a wall or a slope everyone will want to sit in this cozy spot! And if you provide a view of some sort then it will be even more appealing.  Gloster Furniture in the garden You can create a protected corner next to your house by using the rear wall as one side of the corner and a low hedge as the other side. This combination makes a wonderful niche for a small table and chairs. A sheltered corner is so inviting - by Johnsen Landscapes & P...

Longhouse Reserve - Easthampton, NY - a great place to visit Valentines’ Day is synonymous with  RED  - red roses, red hearts and red carnations. Red, the hottest of the warm colors, is the color of love, romance, passion and energy.... (and of Target dept.store). Brides wear red in China, India and the Islamic countries. Audrey Hepburn wore it in Funny Face: Red arouses, excites and evokes strong emotions. In fact, studies show that seeing red can stimulate your body to pump out more adrenaline and increases blood pressure, respiration and pulse rate. I remember the first time I saw how powerful red could be - it was in the movie GiGi by Vincente Minelli. I was very young and I sat in the movie theater looking at the magnifent red salon in Paris, thinking how dull our little rooms in my Queens, NY apartment were.   Minelli, a film director, was a  master of color ,  saying,   "I use col...

Happy New Year to You!  2018 will be a wonderful year. I wish you all the blessings that a New Year brings. And I aim to bring more serenity and inspiration to garden lovers next year.  Love the Earth in 2018. Yours, Jan Johnsen

alliums in the garden - Jan Johnsen   The idea that we are living within a world swirling with unseen energies is not new.  The Chinese idea of Tao comes closest to what mystics, tribal peoples and modern day physicists explain as the basis of all life.   The Tao, as Alan Watts writes, is not God “in the sense of ruler, monarch, commander, architect and maker of the universe,” but an “intelligent rhythm” (Watts, “Tao: the Watercourse Way” P 40): “The great Tao flows [also “floats” and “drifts”] everywhere To the left and to the right, All things depend upon it to exist, And it does not abandon them. To its accomplishments it lays no claim. It loves and nourishes all things, but does not lord it over them.             A flourishing garden spotlights this intelligent rhythm and is our everyday “repository of life …….with no claim to its accomplishments”.  Alan Watts uses a watercourse ...

Otisville Correctional Facility - where I taught but it was not this nice looking back then In the 1970s, I was a part of a team that taught a one year intensive certificate program on Landscape Development and Maintenance at a community college near New Paltz, NY. I was a young instructor but was very earnest and devoted to teaching. Then one day the president of the college called me in and told me that I, alone, would be teaching all my courses at a men's correctional facility 44 miles away.  What??!! all my classes? away from the campus? in a prison? After much protesting, I was sent 'away' to teach the entire program at a men's prison. Well, as often happens, it was one of the best experiences in my life. I taught full time there for 2 years and still cherish the memories. Otisville Correctional Facility classroom  - but not my specific class I have a lot of fun stories. We installed walks, plant beds and even a solar greenhouse (it was donate...

The idea that we are living within a world swirling with unseen energies is not a new one...   The Chinese idea of Tao comes closest to what mystics, tribal peoples and modern day physicists explain as the basis of all life. (white plumeria, Kauai )   The Tao, as Alan Watts writes, is not God “in the sense of ruler, monarch, commander, architect and maker of the universe,” but an “intelligent rhythm” ( Watts,  “Tao: the Watercourse Way”   P 40 ): “The great Tao flows [also “floats” and “drifts”] everywhere to the left and to the right, All things depend upon it to exist, And it does not abandon them. To its accomplishments it lays no claim. It loves and nourishes all things, but does not lord it over them. (Jim's Golden Laceleaf Elderberry - Jan Johnsen)           A flourishing garden spotlights this intelligent rhythm. It is our everyday “repositor...